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BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, 



NEW LONDON, CONN. 



A DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED ON THE 



Two Hundredth Anniversary 

OF THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, 

IIV NKW LOINDON, 

Oct. 19th, 1870, 

BT 

THOMAS P. FIELD, 



WITH THE OTHER ADDRESSES ON TIIAT OCCASION, AND SOME ACCOUNT 
OF THE CELEBRATION. 



Your fathers, where are they? 

And the prophets, do they live forever?" 







NEW LONDON : 

STARR & FARNHAM, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 

1870. 



>804 

" WP&Vk about £ion, and no round about her ; tell the 

tmm thereof, parfc p uell her buUrarnsi, 

rounder her nalarrs, that ue may tell it 

to the generation following, for tW 

<£od i$ our 0">od forerer and erer ; 

he uill he our guide eren 

unto death.'' 





CORRESPONDENCE. 



Rev. Thos. P. Field, D. D., 

Dear Sir : — The publication of the Sermon delivered by you on 
the occasion of the late Anniversary, would be very gratifying to the church 
and congregation. 

Will you please furnish us with a copy; also, ompany it with an 
account of the celebration, and such historical facts as you think would be 
interesting, 

Very Respectfully and Truly Yours, 

W. W. SHEFFIELD, 1 

THOS. W. PERKINS, 

W. S. CHAPPELL, 

THOMAS EDGAR, 

F. C. LEARNED, 

CORTLAND DOUGLAS, Committee 

H. S. CHAPPELL, of 

L. H. SHEPARD, Arrangements. 

E. B. EDGAR, 

H. DOUGLAS, 

M. C. BELDEN, 

M. P. CHANET, 

M. E. CHESTER, 

New London, Oct. 24. 1870. 



New London, Oct. 25, 1870. 
To the Committee of Arrangements. 

It will afford me much pleasure to comply with your request. I will 
prepare a copy of the discourse for publication, with such an account of the 
other exercises as it may seem desirable to preserve for future reference. 

Truly Yours, 



THOS. P. FIELD. 



BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



It was but a very short time before the celebration, that 
there was any definite purpose to commemorate the formation 
of the First Church of Christ, in New London. But when 
the Church and Congregation had once entered upon prepar- 
ation for such a commemoration, it was with a great deal of 
enthusiasm that they united in the work, and the result was 
highly satisfactory to the church, and to their friends from 

other places. 

A special invitation to attend the exercises of the celebra- 
tion was given to the Ministers of the city of New London, 
and to the members of the New London Association of Con- 
gregational clergymen; also, to the absent members of the 
church; and the officers and surviving founders of the Second 

Church. 

An invitation was also sent to His Honor the Mayor, and 
other gentlemen of the city, and to the President and Pro- 
fessors of the Theological faculty of Vale College. 

Most of those who were invited came, and participated in 
the exercises, and kind and cheering letters were received 
from some who were unable to be present. 

Much taste was manifested in the adorning of the church 
for the occasion. Around the galleries, in the spaces between 
the pillars, were the names of the pastors of the church from 
the beginning, painted in large capitals, on a white ground, 
with the date of the beginning of the ministry of each above, 
and the end of it beneath the name, and the whole surrounded 
by a frame of evergreens. In the apsis of the church were the 



6 

portraits of some of the pastors, — Mr. Saltonstall, Mr. 
Adams, and Dr. McEwen; also, a portrait of Gov. John Win- 
throp, Jr., the founder of the town; of Nathaniel Shaw, one 
of the greatest benefactors of the Society; and of Mr. Miner, 
a former deacon of the church. In front of the gallery of the 
choir, were portraits of Mrs. Adams, the wife of one of the 
ministers, Mrs. Woodbridge, the wife of another of the min- 
isters, and of Mrs. Temperance Shaw, a "Mother in Israel," 
in former days. 

Around the pillars were twined wreaths of laurel, and fes- 
toons of the same hung between the arches, from column to 
column. The pulpit and the table in front of it, were embow- 
ered in flowers, arranged in forms of exceeding beauty, that 
excited the admiration of all beholders. 

A large choir, composed of the best singers of all the choirs 
of New London, was gathered by Mr. A. Jantz, the organist 
of the church. Their rendering of the "good old tunes," was 
inspiring in its effect, and added greatly to the interest of the 
celebration. 

The exercises commenced at 2 o'clock P. M., with an invo- 
cation, and the reading of the 8th chapter of Deuteronomy, 
by Rev. Prof. Day, of the Yale Theological Seminary. The 
Psalm 

" Upward I lift mine eyes, 
From God is all mine aid," 

was then sung. Rev. Dr. O. E. Daggett offered prayer, when 
the Psalm 

"Let children hear the mighty deeds 
Which God performed of old," 

was sung. After which the discourse was delivered, and there 
was a concluding prayer by Rev. Mr. Jones of Franklin, and 
a benediction by Rev. Dr. Bond of Norwich. 

A lew notes have been added in explanation of some points 
(hat could not be fully treated in the sermon. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



Remember the day, of old, consider the years of many generations ; ask thy 
father, and he will shew the, ; thy elders, an I the 3 wnl tell thee.-DEi.T. .3.. , 

It is natural and interesting to inquire into the origin of 
things. Standing on the banks of a mighty river, we ask 
what is its source? Reading the works of a distinguished 
author we desire to know something of Ids parentage, and the 
place of his birth. Witnessing the achievements of a great na- 
tion we search into its beginnings. Impressed by the phe- 
nomena of the world around us. we investigate their causes, 
and go back, if possible, to the period when these causes began 
to operate. Revelation itself opens its teachings, by telling 
us what was "in the beginning." 

The history of the origin and progress of a particular church, 
cannot of course have much general interest ; but it has a great 
deal of local interest, and that interest is enhanced .1 its histo- 
ry synchronizes with that of the Commonwealth in which it 
exists Indeed the condition of a church in each age of its 
history will be modified by the intellectual and moral life of 
the age, and its own changes will reflect, to some extent, the 
prevalent spirit of the years that roll over it. So thai the study 
of the history of each local church, is in some measure a study 
of the history of all the churches, and a study of the history 
of religion, during the period of the existence of the church. 

We have taken the year 1870, and the month oi October .11 
that year, as a time for celebrating the formation of the First 
Church of Christ in New London, not because we think the 
church had its beginning in October 1670, but because our 



church records begin at that time. There is no record of the 
formation of a church in that year nor in any other year. Our 
most ancient book of Records begins thus: "The Records of 
the Church of Christ at New London, wherein are the names 
of ye chh. now being October 5th, 1670, with the names of all 
such as have been baptized and added thereto from ye said 5th 
of October, 1670." The names of the members of the Church 
are then recorded. This was at the time of the ordination of 
Mr. Bradstreet. It is not said on the records that a church 
was then formed. Dr. Trumbull says, in his History of Con- 
necticut, "There seems to have been no Church formed in New 
London til! the ordination of Mr. Bradstreet." But he gives 
no valid reason tor this opinion ; and I think we shall see that 
there is good reason for supposing that there was a church 
here at least twenty years earlier than 1670. 

New London was founded in 1646, by John Winthrop, Jr., 
son of John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts. The 
younger Winthrop was, in many respects, superior to his fath- 
er. He was a man of great powers of mind which had been 
cultivated to their highest extent, by the best education which 
the Universities of Cambridge and Dublin could give. He 
had enlarged his knowledge by extensive travel, at a time when 
extensive travel was a rare privilege. lie delighted in the 
study of the natural sciences, was one of the founders of the 
Royal Society of London, and a contributor to the Philosoph- 
ical Transactions of that Society. lie was. as eminent for his 
virtues as for his intellectual abilities, and his Catholic Chris- 
tian spirit gained him the confidence ol men oi very diverse 
religious opinions. Me mighl have attained the highest dis- 
tinction among the distinguished men ol England, but with 
prophetic eye he saw the coming glories oi the New World, 
and determined to make t hat his home. " Master over his own 
mind," says Bancroft, " he never regretted the brilliant pros- 
pects he resigned, nor complained of the comparative solitude 
of New London." Me became Governor of Connecticut in 

'657- 

Associated with Mr. Winthrop was Mr. Thomas Peters, a 

Minister of the Gospel, brother of Mr. Hugh Peters, Minister 

of the First < 'I uirch in Salem. Mass. I b the General Court of 

Massachusetts a nt hoi il \ was given to these two, Mr. Winthrop 



9 

and Mr. Peters, to begin, order, and govern a plantation here, 
though it was soon after decided that the plantation was not 
within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, but that it belonged 
to Connecticut. 

Mr. Peters remained but a few months. In the autumn of , 
1646 he returned to the church of which he had been Pastor, 
in Cornwall, England. 

It is not known that there was any other Minister of the 
Gospel here until the coming of Mr. Richard Blinman. He 
had been a minister in England, and came to this country with 
some of his friends, and settled in Gloucester, Mass. After 
remaining there eight years, he was invited by this town to the 
work of the ministry in this place. Trumbull says, he came 
with a number of families in the year 1648. Miss Caulkins, 
who has gathered into her full and accurate, and valuable His- 
tory of New London, most of the facts of interest connected 
with our ecclesiastical history, and to whom I once for all ac- 
knowledge my great indebtedness, says, Mr. Trumbull's date 
is too early, and that Mr. Blinman did not remove to this place 
till 1650. 

The contract with the minister was made at that time, not by 
the Church, nor by an Ecclesiastical Society, but by the Town. 
And this continued to be the custom until the settlement of 
Mather Byles in 1757. 

The town set apart for Mr. Blinman's use, a house lot of six 
acres, between what is now the old burial ground and Wil- 
liams street, built a house for him, and gave him a salary of 
sixty pounds a year, to be increased with the growth of the 
town. 

A large barn had been erected by one of the inhabitants, 
near the corner of what we call Granite and Hempstead streets, 
which was fitted up for a meeting house, and there the people 
gathered for religious services for four or five years. They 
were called together, not by the ringing of a bell, but by the 
beat of a drum, not a very unsuitable instrument for the call 
to service of such a Church Militant as they were. But the 
town record sounds strangely to our modern ears. " March 
22, 165 1 — 2. The town have agreed with Peter Blatchford to 
beat the drum all Sabbath dayes, training dayes, and town 
publique meetings." A watch also was stationed on some ele- 



10 

vated position to give alarm if hostile Indians should approach 
the settlement. 

A barn as the house of worship, and a drum beat for the call 
to it — that was the beginning of religious services by our 
Church and our Town. That barn, with its few T worshippers, 
looks poor and dreary to us now, but God is a Spirit, and they 
worshipped him in spirit and in truth. And how much better 
that inward worship with a barren outward appearance, than 
gatherings in grander edifices, where the bell rings out its mu- 
sic from the lofty spire, and organ tones resound through 
Gothic arches, if there be less of humbleness of mind, or 
warmth of love, and strength of faith. 

But they themselves felt that a barn was only suitable for a 
temporary house of worship, and by the year 1655, they had 
built a Meeting House, at a very little distance from the place 
where they first assembled. 

Mr. Blinman left the town in the year 1658, and returned to 
England. It is not known for what reason he was dismissed 
from his charge in this place. There is no evidence that there 
was any dissatisfaction with his ministrations. On the contra- 
ry, he seems to have been highly esteemed, and very successful 
in his work. Pie is said, in a book written in his day, to have 
had "gifts and abilities to handle the word," and to have been 
of a " meek, humble, heavenly carriage." 

Mr. Blinman was minister to the town ; was he also Pastor 
of a Church ? Dr. Trumbull, as we said, thought there was 
no church in New London, till 1670. But is it probable that 
our Puritan lathers lived here twenty years and more, without 
a church organization, when it was so easy a thing in their 
view of church government to form one? We cannot believe 
it. Mr; Blinman is called in the town records, Pastor of the 
Church. A deed given alter his ministry had ceased, commen- 
ces thus, " I Richard Blinman, late Pastor of the Church of 
Christ in New London." 1 have seen a diary in manuscript of 
Mr. Thomas Miner, one of the first members of the church, 
which contains a copy of a letter given l>v the Church to Mr. 
Miner, testifying to his good character. It is dated June 30, 
1669. This diary under date of August 22, [65 |. also gives an 
account of efforts on tin' part of the church and Mr. Miner, to 
become mutually reconciled, after some disagreement and alien- 



11 

ation. Here, I think, is sufficient evidence of the existence of 
a Church before 1670. Indeed, there can be little doubt that a 
church was formed as early at least as the beginning of the 
ministry of Mr. Blinman in 1650. And we think the tri-cen- 
tennial celebration ought to be in 1950. 

After the departure of Mr. Blinman, the Church was, for a 
number of years, without a stated Minister. It is supposed 
that during that time, a layman by the name of John Tinker, 
conducted the services of public worship. For one of the 
items of business in a town meeting in 1661 was, to know 
" what allowance Mr. Tinker shall have for his tyme spent in 
exercising in publique ;" and a small compensation was vot- 
ed him. In that year, 1661, an agreement was made by the 
town with Mr. Gershom Bulkle\ 1 ( mcord, Massachusetts, 
to become their Minister. He was a son of Peter Bulkley, 
one of the ablest Ministers of Massachusetts. Cotton Mather 
says that Peter Bulkley was a man •full of those devotions 
that accompany a conversation in heaven." " Esteemed in his 
day," says Dr. Chauncey of Boston, " one of the greatest men 
in this part of the world." 

Gershom Bulkley was born in 1636, and graduated at Har- 
vard College in 1655. The town agreed to give him eighty 
pounds a year for three years, and more after that if possible; 
to pay him for the removal of his family from Concord; to 
furnish him a dwelling house and a small farm ; and to do 
their endeavors to get him such assistan in the labor of the 
family and the farm as he should need. 

Of Mr. Bulkley's ministry we know very little. But the 
town records give us some insight into some of the customs of 
the time, which it may be interesting to note. We see that 
the worshippers in the meeting house did not sit as now, in 
families, but the women sat on one side of the house, and the 
men on the other. The people, moreover, were seated by a 
Committee appointed by the town. And the seating was evi- 
dently not always satisfactory. But the town voted that when 
the Committee seat the people in the Meeting House, " the in- 
habitants are to vest silent." Whether they did or did not 
"rest silent," we are not told, but can easily imagine. 

There is no evidence that there was any sexton for the barn 
meeting house; but in 1662, after the new meeting house was 



12 

built, we are told that old Goodman Comstock was chosen 
sexton, whose work as the record has it, " is to order youth in 
the meeting house, sweep the meeting house, and beat out dogs, 
for which he is to have forty shillings a year." So literally did 
the people of that day heed the apostolic injunction to "beware 
of dogs." 

There are intimations in the town records, that some dissat- 
isfaction arose in reference to Mr. Bulk ley. What was the 
cause of it we do not know. But there is a vote of the town 
which shows that he had said or done something displeasing 
to some of the people. At a town meeting, February 25, 1664, 
the town being desired "to declare their mynds" concerning Mr. 
Bulkley, it was "propounded whether they were willing to leave 
Mr. Bulkley to the libertve of his conscience, without compel- 
ling him or enforcing him to anything in the execution of his 
place and office, contrarye to his light, according to the laws 
of the Commonwealth. Voated to be their mynds." 

A very wise, just and honorable vote. But Mr. Bulkley was 
not satisfied, and in the same year resigned his office. He was 
afterwards settled in Wethersfield, and was one of the most in- 
fluential ministers in the State. 

The character given of him on his monument, though per- 
haps a little exaggerated, as monumental inscriptions often are, 
yet corresponds, in the main, with what we learn of him from 
other sources. "He was of rare abilities, extraordinary indus- 
try, excellent in learning, master of many languages, exquisite 
in his skill in divinity, physic and laws, and of a most exem- 
plary christian life." 

The next minister was Simon Bradstreet, who entered upon 
his ministry soon after Mr. Bulkley 's resignation, but was not 
ordained till October 5th, 1670. The church records commence 
at that time, and are continued uninterruptedly, though for the 
most part in a very meagre form, until this day. 

Mr. Bradstreet was son of Gov. Simon Bradstreet of Massa- 
chusetts. His mother was Ann, daughter of Gov. Thomas 
Dudley of Massachusetts. Ann Bradstreet, the mother of our 
Simon, was the most remarkable woman of her day, in New 
England. She was a woman of a highly cultivated mind for 
her time, of a tender poetic sensibility, and of a deeply pious 
spirit. A volume of her poems was published in England, 



13 

and in this country, which went through a munber of editions. 
Some extracts from them may be found in Griswold's " Female 
Poets ot America," which show that she had the imagination, 
the feeling and the rythmical ability of a true poet. In the in- 
teresting "History of the First Church in Charlestown, Massa- 
chusetts," by Rey. W. I. Budington, D. D., there are extracts 
from a manuscript volume of hers, dedicated to her dear son, 
Simon Bradstreet, the Minister of this Church. It contains 
seventy-seven " Meditations Divine and Moral." I will quote 
two or three of them. 

"A ship that bears much sail, and little or no ballast, is easily 
overset; and that man whose head hath gr< . ■ abilities, and his 
heart little or no grace, is in danger oi foundering." 

"The finest wheat hath the least bran, the purest honey the 
least wax, and the sincerest christian the least self love." 

"Downy beds make drowsy persons, but hard lodging keeps 
the eyes open ; so a prosperous state makes a secure christian, 
but adversity makes him consider." 

Dr. Budington gives an account of another volume of hers, 
in the handwriting of the minister of this church, entitled " A 
true copy of a book left by my dear and honored mother to 
her children, and found among some papers after her death. 
The manuscript begins thus. 

TO MY DEAR CHILDREN. 

This book by any yet unn 
I leave to you when I am dead ; 
That being gone, here you may find 
What was your loving mother's mind. 
Make use of what I lean' in love. 
And God shall bless you from above. 

It was the christian spirit of this noble-minded woman, that, 
without doubt, contributed most of all to form the character 
of one of our first ministers, Simon Bradstreet. And his son 
was the minister of the First Church in Charlestown, Mass.; 
and his grandson minister of the First Church in Marblehead. 
And so her faith was diffused widely, and transmitted to other 
generations. And always as we think of Simon Bradstreet, 
we will honor Ann Bradstreet, the true christian mother — the 
earliest female poet of America. 



14 

Mr. Bradstreet began the records of our church, Oct. 5, 1670, 
with the names of the members of the church. The following 
are the names. 



Lieut. James Avery and his wife. 

Thomas Miner and his wife. 

James Morgan, senior, and his wife. 

William Meade and his wife. 

Mr. Will. Douglasse and his wife. 

John Smith and his wife. 

Mr. Ralph Parker and his wife. 

William Nichols. 

William Hough and his wife. 

Robert Royce. 

John Prentice. 

Moses Rogers. . 

Goodwife Henry. 

Goodwife Gallop, of Mystick. 

Goodwife Coyte. 

Goodwife Lewis. 

Mr. James Rogers. 

Most of the family names, we see, are those with which we 
are very familiar in this town, and many present in this house 
to-day, are doubtless descendants of those whose names are 
here recorded. 

Of the state of religion and of society at that time, we can 
say nothing very definite. No doubt, if we could be trans- 
ported hack to that period, life would look to us somewhat 
cold, stern and uninviting. And yet there was the same hu- 
man nature working then as now, and substantially the same 
joys and sorrows. 

There must have heen a very strict observance of the Sab- 
hath, and t>\ the outward forms of religious service, rigid hab- 
its of industry, and a peculiar regard to the proprieties of life. 
Our fathers oi t hat period were by no means barbarians. They 
had heen brought up in a land of high civilization; they knew 
the laws of good breeding, courtesy and refinement. Main' of 
them were exceedingly courtly in their manners. 



15 

But it is easy to see what changes two hundred years have 
wrought in the customs of society. Even the cases brought for 
trial before the County Court will show this. I will give a 
few of those cases from among those collected in the History 
of New London. " Goodwife Willey presented (i. e. to the 
Court) for not attending public worship and bringing her chil- 
dren with her." "George Tongue and wife were solemnly 
reprimanded for their many offences against God and man, 
and each other. On their submission, and promise of refor- 
mation, and engaging to keep up the solemn duty of prayer 
and the service of God in the family, they were released by 
paying a fine of £3." "John Lewis and Sarah Chapman pre- 
sented for sitting together on the Lord's day. under an apple 
tree in Goodman Chapman's orchard." "John Pease com- 
plained of for living alone, for idleness, and not attending 
public worship. This court orders that Pease be entertained 
in some suitable family, he paying for his board and accommo- 
dation, and that he employ himself in some lawful calling." 
" Thomas Dinke for neglecting to teach his servant to read, 
is fined ten shillings." Here are indications of a people stren- 
uously opposed to ignorance, idleness, irreligion, immorality, 
and improprieties of every kind. They may have misjudged 
as to the best means of attaining their ends, but they meant to 
have a good and orderly state of society, and measurably suc- 
ceeded in this. 

During Mr. Bradstreet's ministry a new meeting house was 
built, the one built twenty-five years before, in Mr. Blinman's 
time, haying been found too small to accommodate the people. 
In 1680 the health of Mr. Bradstreet failed, and he proposed 
to resign his office. The town seems to have been reluctant to 
accept his resignation, and informed him that they were willing 
to allow him a comfortable maintenance as God should enable 
them, and they would wait God's providence in respect to his 
health. He did not recover his health, but continued minister 
of the church until his death in 1683. 

From this time there was a vacancy in the pastorate until 
the ordination of Gurdon Saltonstall, in 1691. Other minis- 
ters had been on the ground, and preached acceptably to the 
people. Two at least, a Mr. Edward Oakes, and Mr. Thomas 
Barnett, were called to the work of the ministry, and were 



16 

each here for some months, but neither became pastor of the 
church. 

At a town meeting 25th of August, 1691, it was voted — " that 
the Hon. Major General John Winthrop is to appear as the 
mouth of the town at Mr. Saltonstall's ordination, to declare 
the town's acceptance of him to the ministry." Mr. Saltonstall 
was ordained November 25th, 1691. 

This is his record in the old book. "The Records of ye 
church in N. London; kept by G. Saltonstall, from Nov. 25, 
'91, who was on vt. day ordained Minister there by Mr. Elliot 
and Mr. Timothy Woodbridge." Mr. Eliot was minister in 
Guilford, in this State, and Mr. Woodbridge minister in Hart- 
ford. 

At the beginning of Mr. Saltonstall's ministry, the people 
were called together no longer by the beat of a drum, but by a 
bell, the first that had been heard in the town or the county. 
In the earlier part of Mr. Saltonstall's ministry, the meeting 
house was destroyed by lire, but another was soon erected on 
the same spot, and for that one Gov. Fitz. John Winthrop, the 
son of John Winthrop the founder of the town, made a pres- 
ent of a bell. It was voted in town meeting, "that the town 
accepts the gift of the bell given by Gov. Winthrop for the 
meeting house with great thankfulness, and desire that their 
thanks may be given to his honor for the same." 

Peculiar disturbances arose in the church during the minis- 
try of Mr. Saltonstall, about which so much has been written 
that the facts are familiar to most of the inhabitants of the 
town. But my sketch of our church history would be very 
imperfect without some notice of them. I refer to the pro- 
ceedings of the people called Rogerenes. 

( )ii the list of church members given by Mr. Bradstreet, will 
be found tin- name of James Rogers. He seems to have been 
a very upright and excellent man, but one of his sons, John 
Rogers, adopted very peculiar views, and brought under his 
influence, the father and most of the members of a large fami- 
ly. Their views were similar in many respects to those of the 
Quakers, though they did not affiliate with that sect, but rath- 
er established a sect of their own. 

[n their opinions concerning the doctrines oi religion gen- 
erally, they coincided with other christians, and they did not 



17 

abandon, as do the Quakers, the ordinances of Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper. They were opposed to the observance of 
a Sabbath, and regarded all days as equally sacred or secular. 
They did not believe in any official ministry of the gospel, nor 
in having any edifices set apart for public worship, nor in any 
vocal prayers or praises. They considered it a sin to adminis- 
ter the oath in civil courts, and to resort to physicians or use 
medicine for the cure of bodily ailments. They were bitterly 
opposed to all laws relating to religion or religious worship, 
and particularly that any should be taxed to maintain the in- 
stitutions of religion, a point on which the community gener- 
ally have come to an agreement with them. 

Their views of the sabbath and of public worship were con- 
trary to the laws of the State at that time, but they were not 
content to hold their opinions quietly, and to live in accord- 
ance with them, but professed to feel themselves bound to tes- 
tify, in every possible way, against the views and practices of 
christians generally. So, as they did not believe in the sabbath 
or in public worship, they would go to the church and engage 
in their work of sewing or knitting, and chop wood on the 
door step during the prayer and the preaching ; and when the 
minister said anything that they did not like they would pro- 
test against it, and call him a liar. "They would come on the 
Lord's day," savs Dr. Trumbull, " into the most public assem- 
blies nearly or quite naked, and in time of public worship 
behave in a wild and tumultuous manner, crying out, and 
charging the most venerable ministers with lies and false doc- 
trine. They would labor on the Lord's day, and drive carts by 
places of public worship, apparently on purpose to disturb 
christians and christian assemblies. They seemed to take pains 
to violate the laws in the presence of officers, that they might 
be complained of, and have an opportunity to insult the laws, 
the courts, and all civil authority." This was testifying 
against the errors of the times. Of course such actions could 
not be tolerated. Nor would they now. These disturbers 
were fined, they were imprisoned, they were dealt with no 
doubt often in a harsh and cruel manner. And yet they 
brought these penalties upon themselves and gloried in their 
endurance of them. They might have been fined, simply for 
disregarding the Sabbath and public worship, but if they 



18 

had not made themselves obnoxious, by their fanatical and 
intolerant mode of dealing with others, there would have been 
no severe penalties inflicted upon them. 

Mr. Saltonstall was a man who loved order, who magnified 
his office, both as a minister of the gospel and Governor ol 
the State; and the wild and lawless acts of these followers of 
John Rogers, were particularly distasteful to his dignified and 
conservative spirit. He was greatly tried by their follies, but 
there is no evidence that he ever manifested toward them a 
wrathful or intolerant spirit. "There never was" said Gov. 
Saltonstall in a letter to Sir Henry Ashurst, "for this twenty 
years that I have resided in this government, any one, Quaker 
or other person, that suffered on account of his different per- 
suasion in religious matters from the body of this people."* 
When the Rogerenes interrupted the services of public wor- 
ship, Mr. Saltonstall would have them taken out of church. 
On one occasion when John Rogers circulated some false 
report about him, he brought an action in the county court for 
defamation and obtained a verdict of the jury in his behalf. 
But he was very willing that the Rogerenes should worship 
God in their own way, and according to their own conscien- 
ces, if they would be quiet, and not interrupt the worship of 
others; and they were not punished on account of their re- 
ligious views, but on account of their disorderly conduct. 

In respect to some of the ridiculous customs of the Roger- 
enes, Mr. Saltonstall would sometimes outwit them by his 
shrewdness. An instance of this is given in relation to their 
customs in marriage. The Rogerenes did not believe in the 
observance in marriage of any civil or religious rite. At one 
time, one of them declared his intention to take a wife without 
any such ceremony. Mr. Saltonstall, seeing the man in com- 
pany with the woman, said to him, "Do you, Sir, intend to 
live with this woman as your wile?" "Yes," he replied, "I 
do." "And von Madam, do you mean to live with this man as 
your husband." "Yes," she answered, "1 will." Then said 
Mr. Saltonstall, " I solemnly pronounce you, according to the 
laws of this colony, husband and wife, and shall make a prop- 



*BushneH's Work and Play, p. 185. 



19 

er record of your marriage." "Ah, Gurdon," said the baffled 
Rogerene, "thou art a cunning creature."* 

The influence of these Rogerene disturbances, on religion 
in the church and in the town, could not have been otherwise 
than injurious. Perhaps no one would have dealt with them 
better than Mr. Saltonstall did, for he had great firmness in 
action, and his talents could not but command respect. But, 
it may be, he was a little too stately and reserved in his inter- 
course with these singular people, and a manner somewhat 
more gentle and conciliatory than his, might have checked the 
evil in the germ. As it was it went on, and continued to be a 
disturbing element in the community for a hundred years. 

Mr. Saltonstall had a reputation throughout the State, and 
indeed throughout New England, as a man of great powers of 
mind, and executive ability. And when Fitz John Winthrop 
died, in 1707, a special legislative assembly was immediately 
convoked in New Haven, to choose another Governor, and 
the Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall was elected by the votes of the 
assembly to that office. On the next May, 1708, he was chosen 
Governor by the freemen. The legislature, knowing how re- 
luctant the church would be to part with their minister, ad- 
dressed them a letter giving their reasons for thinking that 
Mr. Saltonstall had a call to the gubernatorial office, and en- 
deavoring to dispose them to submit cheerfully to the dispen- 
sation. The legislature also voted the sum of one hundred 
pounds to the church to help them in obtaining another minis- 
ter. Mr. Saltonstall was elected Governor, annually, for seven- 
teen years. He continued to reside in this town, and took 
part, as a member, in the worship and ordinances, and govern- 
ment of this church. He was not universally popular, either 
as minister or governor, for he was very decided in his views, 
and of a somewhat imperious temper. But he could not have 
been widely unpopular, as his success in the ministry, and his 
repeated elections to the office of Governor abundantly shows. 
It is probable that the disturbances he witnessed, led him to 



* I have heard tbi- story narrated in a variety of forms. There can be no au- 
thority for it, of course, but that of tradition. It bears, however, so many 
marks of probability, that there can be no reason to doubt its correctness. I 
have narrated it substantially as given by Dr. McEwen, and Miss Caulkins. 



20 

feel the need of a stronger government than that oi indepen- 
dency in the church, and to him mainly is ascribed the forming 
of the Saybrook Platform, which he thought would give more 
strength and order to the churches. But even his great influ- 
ence was not sufficient to induce the church to adopt the Say- 
brook Platform of discipline. He died very suddenly in 1724, 
in the 59th year of his age, and his death was very widely 
lamented. 

I have in my possession the funeral discourse preached by 
his successor, Mr. Adams. I will make an extract from this 
discourse. "His aspect was noble and amiable, commanding 
respect and reverence, and attracting our esteem and love at 
the first appearance ; and there was such an air of greatness 
and goodness in his whole mien and deportment, as showed 
him to be peculiarly formed for government and dominion. 
Who that was acquainted with him did not admire his con- 
summate wisdom, his dexterity in business and indefatigable 
application, his intimate acquaintance with men and tilings, 
and his superior genius ? And what was more than all this, his 
unaffected piety and love to God's house, his exact life and 
exemplary conversation ? In what part of learning did he not 
excel? He had mastered every subject which lie undertook, 
and nothing could escape his penetration. How great did he 
appear whether in the court or camp. He was an oracle in 
the law, and no man was better read either in the agitated con- 
troversies, or abstruse points of divinity. Von that hear me 
this day know the truth of these things, before whom therefore 
I speak freely." An article from the Boston News Letter is 
appended to the discourse, which is still more laudatory. In 
speaking of him as an orator, it refers to the agreeableness 
and even the music of his voice, the strength and perspicuity 
of his reasoning, the beauty of his allusions, the concise full- 
ness in his diction and style, the charm in his appearance and 
gesture, making him heard " with satisfaction, delight and rap- 
ture." Making all due allowance for the customary exaggera- 
tions of eulogy in these words, they may serve to give us some 
idea of the man. During his pastorate a hundred and liftv- 
four persons were added to the church. 

The ministry ol Mr. Saltonstall was soon followed by that 
of Eliphalet Adams, who was ordained 9th February, 1708-9. 



21 

He was the son of Rev. William Adams of Dedham, Mass. 
He was born in 1679, and graduated at Harvard College in 
1694. He early manifested a deep interest in the aborigines 
of our country, an interest he continued to feel throughout his 
life. An entry in his diary, 1699, says, " I preached my first 
sermon to the Indians in their own language, with fears lest I 
should be a barbarian unto them, but they told me they under- 
stood it well, and accepted it thankfully." From 1701 to 1703, 
two years, he was assistant to the Rev. Dr. Colman, of Brattle 
Street Church, Boston, and was preaching in Boston when he 
was called to the ministry in this town. The sermon at his 
ordination was preached by his brother-in-law, Rev. Samuel 
Whiting of Windham. The earlier part of tlie ministry of 
Mr. Adams was not characterized by much that would be in- 
teresting to narrate in this discourse. One or two items from 
the town records may show us something how the congrega- 
tion appeared. " Leave was given to Gov. Saltonstall to build 
a pew on the north side of the meeting house, between the 
pulpit and the north-west corner pew." That was the place of 
honor. There was still, evidently, a good deal of trouble 
about the seating of the people. Some thought they were not 
honored sufficiently by the seats to which they were assigned. 
In town meeting, 1723, it was voted, "That Mary Jiggells be 
seated in the third seat on the woman's side, where she is or- 
dered by the town to sit." It is evident they had no choir of 
singers at that day, for it was voted in town meeting, " that for 
the benefit of setting the psalm, Mr. Fosdick be seated in the 
third seat at the end next the altar." Mr. Adams has made a 
record of a vote of the church in 1726. which must have been 
regarded as of much importance, since hardly another vote of 
the church is recorded during his ministry of forty-three years. 
" Whereas it appears to us that there are divers persons among 
us of a good character and deportment, who stand oft" from 
joining to our communion because it hath been insisted upon, 
that a relation of their experiences should be brought by those 
who offer to join themselves to the church, for which they 
see no warrant — it is now agreed and voted, that while it 
would be very acceptable to us that persons offering themselves 
to our communion should continue still so to do, yet where. 
they have a very great scruple and difficulty upon their spirits 



22 

to comply with this custom, it shall for the future be left in- 
different." Miss Caulkins gives, in her history, an item from 
Hempstead's diary, which shows that many of the people came 
to church from a distance, and remained there between the 
services. "August 16th, 1734. A large book of Mr. Baxter's 
is brought into the meeting house and left there, to read in 
between meetings, for those who stav there." I have that book 
in my possession ; it lies on the table before us. I find this 
record on a fly-leaf of the book. "This book, with three vol- 
umes more, was presented to the churches of New London 
and Groton, by the hand of Dr. Colman of Boston, in the year 
1730, from the Hon. Samuel Holden, Esq., of London, being 
one of thirty-nine sets of the practical works of the venerable 
Richard Baxter, to distribute among the churches. The third 
and fourth volumes went to the church at Groton." Whether 
that church has them now or not, I do not know. Ours is the 
second volume. 

In the year 1720 Mr. Adams was elected trustee oi Yale 
College, and continued in that office, where he exerted a very 
great influence, until his death. A vacancy occurred in the 
Rectorship of the College, or in the Presidency as we should 
now say, in 1723, and Mr. Adams was chosen Rector, but did 
not accept the appointment. 

The greatest revival of religion that there has been in the 
history of this church, was during the ministry of Mr. Adams. 
The year 1740 is often spoken of as the year of The Great 
Awakening in New England. But the new religious move- 
ment seems to have begun at Northampton, under the search- 
ing and powerful preaching of Edwards, in 1734 and '35. His 
preaching was followed by marvellous effects. Many went 
to Northampton to see the wonderful works that had been 
wrought, and carried the report of what they saw to other 
places; and there were revivals in many towns in Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut. In [739 Whitefield came to this coun- 
try. The story of his success in preaching to thousands in 
the open air in England, was familiar to the people. He went 
from Philadelphia, where he landed, to New York, and from 
thence to Boston, and as he passed from city to city, and from 
town to town, crowds would gather around him. In Boston, 
t he churches could not contain the audiences that desired to 



23 

hear him, and he preached on the Common, it is said, to as 
many as thirty thousand people. He returned to England in 
1 741. But before his departure, almost all communities had 
been aroused to a new consideration of their spiritual interests. 
There was a preacher of great influence who accompanied Mr. 
Whitefield in his preaching tour, Rev. Gilbert Tennent, of 
New Jersey. He had nothing of the tenderness and pathos of 
Whitefield, but he had strong reasoning powers, deep feeling, 
a ready flow of language, and was bold and awful in portray- 
ing the terrific consequences of sin. After Whitefield went to 
England, Tennent travelled through Connecticut, and preached 
in New London, in March, 1741. This appears to have been 
the beginning of the revival of that year, in this church. The 
whole town was moved by his preaching, and many came in 
from neighboring towns to hear him. Soon after he left, a 
whole week was devoted to religious services, and each day is 
said to have been like a Sabbath. A minister of Lyme, the 
Rev. Jonathan Parsons, a friend of Whitefield and Tennent, 
who had been with them in their preaching tours, and had 
caught something of their spirit, while he was himself a supe- 
rior preacher, also rendered Mr. Adams some assistance at this 
time. As the result of the efforts of Mr. Adams and these 
helpers, much good was done; many were converted, new life 
and zeal were awakened in the hearts of christians, and eighty 
members were added to the church between the months of May 
and September, 1741. But we have sorrowfully to acknowl- 
edge that many evils before unknown grew up in connection 
with this increased religious interest. 

During the period of this revival, the Rev. James Daven- 
port, of Southold, Long Island, who was very celebrated as a 
revival preacher, came to this place and held meetings. His 
preaching had a very singular effect upon many of his hearers. 
He was under terrible excitement, and his screams and wails 
would throw many in a congregation into hysterics or fainting 
fits, and he would regard the nervous convulsions as the work 
of the Divine Spirit. He may have been a good man, but he 
was greatly lacking in sound judgment, as he himselt came to 
acknowledge. He preached rather to the nerves than to the 
hearts and consciences of men. But he stirred up a strange 
enthusiasm in this town and in the vicinity. He would vehe- 



24 

mently denounce the churches and the ministers as wanting in 
zeal. He wished to examine the ministers as to their religious 
experience, and if any refused to be examined by him, he 
woidd not hesitate to say that they were unconverted. He 
raised up a party who were dissatisfied with the usual minis- 
trations, and methods of proceeding in the churches, and who 
loudly condemned them for their want of a zealous and evan- 
gelical spirit. About this time David Brainerd, whose praise 
is now in all the churches, but who had not then begun the 
work as a missionary that has made him so honored, writes, " I 
believe there is much false religion in many of these eastern 
towns. I preached at New London, where there is wild con- 
fusion too long to mention." The confusion to which Brain- 
erd refers resulted in the withdrawal of a considerable number 
from the church. Wishing, as they said, to have a purer 
church, they formed themselves, by the permission oi the coun- 
ty court, which was then required, into a separate society. 
They obtained for their minister a Mr. Timothy Allen from 
West Haven, who had been suspended from the ministry for 
some irregularities. They fitted up a house at the corner ot 
what is now. Truman and Blinman streets for their society. 
It was called the Shepherd's Tent. Here it was proposed also 
to have a kind of seminary to fit men for the ministry, and 
Mr. Allen was at the head of such a school. I suppose it is 
not generally known, even by the ministers of New London 
County, that there was, more than a century ago, a theological 
seminary in New London. To form the Separate Society 
about a hundred withdrew from this chinch. 

In 1743, Mr. Davenport visited these Separatists, but was 
not satisfied with their purity or zeal. He said they were 
worshipping idols, and the idols, whatever they were, must be 
burned. Religious books which they loved, works oi eminent 
divines, but which contained views not in harmony with the 
notions of Mr. Davenport, and articles of dress that were simp- 
lv ornamental, all must be committed to the flames. So, on a 
Lord's day in March, [743, they mack' a bonfire in the street, 
and brought their ornaments, and what they had regarded as 
most beautiful in their apparel, and threw them with the con- 
denied books, into the blazing fire, and so burned their idols. 
This was such a ridiculous proceeding, that it seemed to sobei 



25 

the minds of the enthusiasts, and the zeal of some of them 
burned out in the bonfire. Tradition tells us that one said, 
"his idols were his wife and children, and it would be wrong 
to burn them;" another, that "his idol was Mr. Davenport 
himself, and he could not throw him into the fire." A council 
of ministers was called soon after to consider the best manner 
of stopping such disorderly proceedings. Mr. Edwards of 
Northampton, presided over it. He preached a sermon on the 
disorders and enthusiasm of the times. What the result of 
the council was, we do not know, but the new society and the 
new seminary in the Shepherd's Tent, over which Mr. Timothy 
Allen presided, had but a very short life. Mr. Davenport, be- 
fore he died, published a recantation of his errors in denounc- 
ing churches and ministers as he had done, and acknowledged 
his faidt in stirring up such wild enthusiasm in New London. 

No man could have been better fitted to be minister of this 
church at that time than Mr. Adams. He was a man of good 
judgment and a good spirit. He was calm, upright, steadfast 
and conciliatory. He was highly esteemed in all the churches, 
and the most of his people, and the best part of them rallied 
around him and stood firmly by him. 

But the time had come in the growth of the town when 
there would naturally spring up other denominations. The 
Episcopal church began its services here during his ministry, 
about the year 1730. Mr. Adams, in a sermon on the death of 
his wife, speaking of the kindness of his friends during his 
affliction, says, "The Rev. Mr. Graves," the Episcopal clergy- 
man, "prayed with us again and again with much sympathy." 
The Baptists formed a church also, which however did not 
continue to exist; the present First Baptist Church not having 
been formed till 1804. Mr. Adams did not confine his sympa- 
thies and his efforts within the boundaries of his own congre- 
gation. There are memoranda in his note book, of his frequent 
preachings to the Indians at Mohegan and at Niantic. His 
advice was much sought by the clergy of the State and of New 
England. He prepared young men for college and for the 
ministry. He was noted as a Hebrew scholar. I have seen a 
volume of his discourses, and in looking over them, have been 
struck with the logical arrangement of his thoughts, and the 
fervor and force of his style. His ministry, though one of 



26 

many trials, was long and useful. He was 76 years old when 
he died, October, 1753. On his monument, in the old burial 
ground, are these words from Youngs' Night Thoughts: 

"So just the skies, Philander' s life so pained, 
His heart so pure, that or succeeding scenes 
Have palms to give, or ne'er had he been born." 

After the death of Mr. Adams, there was a vacancy in the 
pastorate of about four years. The pulpit was supplied for a 
part of the time by Mr. William Adams, a son of Eliphalet ; 
and a vote of the society was taken in reference to his settle- 
ment ; but the majority of the people were opposed to it. At 
length Mather Byles, Jr., of Boston, came before the people 
as a candidate. He had not the solid excellences of Mr. Ad- 
ams, but he was young and attractive in personal appearance, 
and his florid style and eloquent manner gained him immedi- 
ate popularity, and called forth a unanimous vote for him as 
pastor of the church. His record in the church book com- 
mences thus: " 1757, Nov. 18th, I was ordained pastor of the 
First Church of Christ in New London. The Rev. Mr. Lord 
of Norwich began with prayer. My father, the Rev. Mr. Byles 
of Boston, preached on 2nd Tim. 3: 17. Mr. Lord read the 
votes of the church and society relating to the call, and my 
answer. My father prayed and gave the charge. The Rev. 
Mr. Fish of Stonington, prayed after the charge. The Rev. 
Mr. Throop of Norwich, gave the right hand of fellowship, 
and I the psalm and blessing." 

It will be seen that Mr. Byles was not settled by the town, 
as the preceding ministers had been. When other denomina- 
tions had their societies, and there were varying religious 
opinions, church affairs could no longer be transacted by the 
town, and an ecclesiastical society was formed. 

Mather Byles was the son of a minister of Boston, somewhat 
distinguished in his day as a preacher, but far more distinguish- 
ed as a wit. Every one who has lived in Boston, has heard so 
many humorous anecdotes about him, that the very name 
awakens at once feelings of the ludicrous. I have no evidence 
that Mr. Byles, Jr. inherited any of this peculiarity of his father. 
So far as I can get any idea of the man, he seems to me to 
have been very grave, rather irritable, and of a quick temper. 



27 

A little wit might have stood him in good stead in dealing 
with the Rogerenes, who began again their work of testifying 
during his ministry, and who were exceedingly annoying to 
him. If he saw one of them come into the church and keep 
his hat on, Mr. Byles would refuse to go on in his services till 
the man was taken out. The Rogerenes saw what little things 
annoyed and disconcerted him, and they kept at their testifying; 
when if he had let them alone, or had possessed a little of the 
ability his father would have had to show up their nonsense, 
they would not have troubled him so much. 

Mr. Byles continued to be the minister of this church a 
little over ten years, and was popular as a preacher. But very 
suddenly, without the slightest previous intimation of any 
change on his part, he informed the people that he had receiv- 
ed an invitation to become Rector of an Episcopal Church in 
Boston. They were astonished and grieved, and endeavored 
to dissuade him from the change, but he replied that while he 
regarded this as a true Church of God, and the doctrines of 
its Confession of Faith as the true doctrines of the Gospel, yet 
he preferred the ritual and government of the Church of Eng- 
land, and had been an Episcopalian at heart for a number of 
years. He said, moreover, that his health was feeble ; that the 
hill on which the meeting house stood, was toilsome for him 
to ascend; that the labors of pastoral visitation, and lecturing 
at two or three places in town, were too arduous for him, and 
he thought that he was better fitted to be a minister in Boston, 
where he was brought up, and where his friends and kindred 
were, than in New London. The more matters were discuss- 
ed between him and the people, the less agreement there was, 
and he departed very abruptly and informally. The church 
record says, "April 12th, 176S. Rev. Mr. Mather Byles dis- 
missed himself from the church and congregation." He be- 
came Rector of the North Episcopal church in Boston. 

His ministry was succeeded after a little more than a year's 
interval, by that of Ephraim Woodbridge. He was born in 
Groton in 1746, and his grandfather was the first minister of 
Groton. He graduated at Yale College in 1765, and was or- 
dained in New London October nth, 1769. He seems to have 
imbibed thoroughly the theological views of Edwards, and to 
have familiarized himself with all his metaphysical distinc- 



28 

tions in respect to the relations of the divine and human agen- 
cy, and the difference between natural and moral ability and 
inability, and to have dwelt upon them with great frequency 
in the pulpit. Before the ministry of Mr. Woodbridge, those 
who did not consider themselves prepared to partake of the 
Lord's Supper were permitted to have their children baptized, 
if they would own the covenant of the church. Thus we fre- 
quently find it said in the church records, that such and such 
persons owned the covenant and had their children baptized. 
This had been the general custom of the churches in New 
England till the time of Edwards. He was strenuously op- 
posed to this half-way covenant, as it was called, and wrote 
against it, and convinced many of its impropriety. He thought 
that parents, in order to take upon them in this public manner, 
christian vows in reference to the nurture of their children, 
should be christians themselves, not half-way christians, but 
whole christians. Mr. Woodbridge held that opinion, and 
refused to baptize the children of those who were not in full 
communion with the church. This awakened a great deal of 
feeling, and a great deal of opposition to him. A committee 
was appointed by the society, consisting of Jeremiah Miller, 
Russell Hubbard and Dr. Thomas Coit, to make a statement 
of the grievances subsisting between the society and Mr. 
Woodbridge, and lay it before the society for their action. 
The report of this committee is of course not on the church 
records, but on the society's book. It is a long report contain- 
ing a criticism of the main points of theology, as presented 
by Mr. Woodbridge in his ministrations. It shows that the 
person who wrote it had studied the Calvinistic and Arminian 
systems of theology, and was himself a thorough Arminian. 
The committee argue, also, the subject of the half-way cove- 
nant, and endeavor to show the error of Mr. Woodbridge's 
views. Not many in our churches, now-a-days, have entered 
so fully into the study of theology as this committee. But 
when the report was presented to the society, and the question 
put whether it was acceptable, it was voted by a small majority 
that it was not. So the society stood hv Mr. Woodbridge, and 
he continued to preach the Calvinistic doctrines, and oppose 
the half-way covenant. His ministry was of short duration, 



29 

continuing only seven years. He died September 6th, 1776, 
aged 30. On his monument is this inscription : 

" Zion may in his fall bemoan 
A Beauty and a Pillar gone." 

He married a daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Shaw, who died 
a year before himself. Her portrait is on the gallery of the 
choir. They left a number of children. Among their de- 
scendants were seven officers in our civil war, three of whom 
were killed in battle. Some of their descendants are with us 
still. I ought here to allude to the interest manifested by the 
Shaw family in this society, as is evinced by their numerous 
benefactions to it. In 1785 it was thought necessary to erect 
a new house of worship, and the society then left the old site 
on the hill and selected the one we now occupy. The sum of 
twelve hundred pounds was raised by subscription to build 
the house, of which Mr. Thomas Shaw, a son of Capt. Nathan- 
iel Shaw, and a brother of Mrs. Woodbridge, gave about one 
third. He also in 1787, gave a house and land on Main street, 
for a parsonage, and house and land for the use of the Sexton. 
It is surely fitting that his portrait should hang on our walls 
to-day. This Bible, on the desk to-day, was presented in 1789 
to the church, by Mrs. Temperance Shaw, wife of Capt. Na- 
thaniel, and mother of Mr. Thomas Shaw. It was probably 
the first Bible ever used in the church, as it was not, till about 
the time it was given, customary to read the Bible in the ser- 
vices of public worship. Our fathers thought the people 
could read the Bible at home, and they came to the meeting 
house to hear preaching. Another Bible was obtained in 1844, 
and this is now in the possession of the descendants of Mrs. 
Shaw. 

Religion had very much declined in this church and society 
at the time of the death of Mr. Woodbridge. The war of the 
Revolution was in progress. The writings of the French In- 
fidels were undermining the faith of many; apathy pervaded 
the church, and immorality was increasing in the community. 
But there were a few whose love did not grow cold, a few 
good men, more good, warm-hearted women — these kept the 
fire burning on God's altar. For ten years the church was 
without a pastor. The people were too indifferent, their 



30 

thoughts were too much engrossed with the great changes that 
were occurring in our civil affairs, to take interest enough in 
religion to seek a pastor for the church. In 1787 they gave a 
call to Mr. Henry Channing, of Newport, who graduated at 
Yale in 1781, and was tutor in that college from 17S3 to 1786. 
About eighty persons became members of the church within 
two years after the settlement of Mr. Channing. It is evident 
from the records of the church that he did not conform to Mr. 
Woodbridge's custom in respect to the Half-way Covenant, but 
took up the previous methods of procedure in reference to 
admission to the church, for in the records he says, "They 
whose names have C. annexed, attend the Lord's Supper, they 
with no letter annexed, attend Baptism only." 

Whatever may have been Mr. Channing's theological views 
when he entered upon the office of the ministry here, it soon 
became evident that he omitted to preach the doctrines of the 
gospel as they had always been taught in this church. It is 
said that on one occasion he preached, quite plainly, against 
the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ, but was warned that he 
could not continue to minister here if he presented such views, 
and he never afterward entered into any polemical discussion 
of the doctrines of Christianity. He was silent as to many 
fundamental truths of revealed religion. Gradually a new 
Profession of Faith and Covenant was substituted for the old 
one, and used at the admission of members to the church. A 
printed copy of this is in the book in which Mr. Channing 
made his records. It contains only such doctrines as would 
have been subscribed to by Unitarians at the beginning of this 
century. William Ellery Channing, the distinguished Unita- 
rian divine, was a nephew of Mr. Henry Channing, and is 
said to have been much influenced in early life by his uncle's 
views. It was well understood by many that Mr. Henry 
Channing was a Unitarian, but as he did not preach his opin- 
ions decidedly, and as it was then generally considered that a 
minister who was installed over a church, was settled for life, 
and as there was a very prevalent indifference to religious truth, 
there was no effort made to induce him to resign the office of 
pastor. But a change in the times as to the expenses of living, 
made it necessary that he should seek an increase of salary, 
and as the people would not comply with his request in that 



31 

particular, he asked a dismission from the pastoral office, and 
it was granted him. Mr. Channing was a man of a kind and 
courteous spirit. Some of the older inhabitants of our town 
remember him well, and I have heard them speak thankfully 
of good christian -counsel he gave to them in their youth. I 
have seen a printed sermon of his which was written in a 
chaste and clear style, but as it appeared to me, without much 
vigor of thought. It seems singular that he should have re- 
mained here twenty years and not have impressed his peculiar 
views on the minds of any, as we have no evidence that he did. 
His pastorate shows that a ministry devoted to preaching the 
mere moralities of life with negations in respect to evangelical 
doctrine, will have no strong hold upon a people, but will be 
ever growing weaker and weaker in its influence. The people 
became indifferent to his ministry. They made no positive 
opposition to him. They did not mean to be unkind, but the 
record of their dealings with him will not allow us to say that 
they treated him always in a manner that was frank and friend- 
ly. The pastoral relation of Mr. Channing was dissolved in 
May, 1806. 

In October of the same year in which Mr. Channing was dis- 
missed, Mr. Abel McEwen was ordained to the work of the 
ministry here. It is not necessary that I should go into any de- 
tails in respect to the pastorate of Dr. McEwen. Some of the 
principal facts in his ministerial life are given in his own half- 
century sermon; others were presented in a discourse at the 
time of his decease, and there are many other facts we might 
gather up which it would be interesting to consider, but there 
are a great number of witnesses of his ministry still living, 
who can speak to us of these. I may say however, in brief, 
that the immediate selection of Mr. McEwen for their pastor, 
of itself showed clearly that Unitarianism had no place in the 
minds of the people, for it was well known that he had no ten- 
dencies toward a reception of this system. And if there was 
any bias in this direction in the congregation, he set himself at 
once to correct it, by preaching clearly and forcibly the ortho- 
dox doctrines, which had been unheard for so many years. 
He determined also to have the old creed which recognized 
these doctrines, restored substantially, and succeeded in a few 
years in getting affixed to it the signature of all the members 



of the church. I have in my possession that creed as signed 
by the members of the church, commencing with Jedediah 
Huntington, one of the most influential men of this church 
and this town. There was soon after Dr. McEwen's settlement 
a new interest in divine truth, and a quickened state of reli- 
gious feeling. There were evening meetings for christian 
conference ; the voice of prayer was heard in many a family 
where it had never been heard before, and a new impulse was 
given to every good work. 

Nor did Dr. McEwen limit his labors to his own parish, but 
exerted himself with great zeal, to have the many churches in 
this part of the State that had declined from their first love, 
and had fallen into decay, and that were without pastors, serv- 
ed with an efficient ministry; and he had the happiness to see 
many such waste places become fair and fruitful. During the 
ministry of Dr. McEwen, sabbath school operations were com- 
menced in town by faithful and earnest christian women of 
this church, some of whom are now living, and others are gone 
to their reward. There have always been faithful christian 
men in this church, but the women of the church have in all 
its ages, emphatically strengthened the things that remained 
that were ready to die; and their record, if not written out on 
our church books, is written in the book of God's remem- 
brance. 

In 1835 the Second Congregational Church was formed of 
nineteen members from this church, seven of whom are still 
living, some of whom we are glad to have with us in these 
exercises to-day. The Second Church has grown in strength 
and prosperity from year to year, and has ever been distin- 
guished for efficiency and zeal in the cause of Christ. We 
rejoice in the completion of her new church-edifice, which is 
an honor to the church, and an ornament to our city; and we 
trust that her past history may be an earnest of a future still 
brighter and more prosperous. 

In 1850 the meeting-house that stood on this spot was taken 
down, and the one in which we are now assembled was erected 
in its place. 

But the descending sun admonishes me that 1 must not con- 
tinue the narrative of these details further than to say, that the 
ministry of Dr. McEwen continued through a hall century and 



33 

more. He died in Oct. i860, highly respected and esteemed 
by his people, by his brethren in the ministry, and by all who 
knew him. 

My own ministry began here in June, 1856, as associate pas- 
tor with Dr. McEwen, but of that I will write nothing, except 
to express my gratitude for the kindness and sympathy of the 
people, and the pleasure with which I have always been able 
to minister to them. 

We have passed rapidly over the events of more than two 
hundred years. I have omitted in my survey of the period 
much that might have been said, and much that, doubtless, 
some will think, ought to have been said, but I had to make a 
selection, and many things that would be interesting to one, 
would not be interesting to another. The two hundred years 
have been eventful ones, eventful for this church, for our 
country, and for the world. Wonderful civil and social chan- 
ges have occurred during their progress. Old things have 
vanished, and new things have become old, but amidst them 
all the church has remained immovable, bearing testimony 
from age to age to the truths that gather around Jesus Christ, 
the same yesterday, to-day', and forever. 

Churches of other names have gone out from this and wor- 
ship God under different forms of government and with some- 
what different rites from ours, but we thank God that in them 
is heard the same old story that the fathers heard, when they 
came around one altar, and felt that they were one fold having 
one Shepherd. We are conscious still of our unity in the 
diversity, and most conscious of it, when our hearts are warm- 
est with the love of Christ. 

The years that we have reviewed, do not, all of them, by 
any means look attractive. The present seems, in many 
things, better than the past. The generations have not lived 
in vain. Something has been learned, something has been 
gained from year to year. We have become wiser than our 
fathers by means of their mistakes. We know better than 
they knew the separate spheres of the Church and of the 
State. We have become more tolerant and charitable. Are 
we at the same time as inflexible and uncompromising as the 
earliest of the fathers were in our adherence to truth and 
right? We have gained in civilization, in refinement, in cul- 



34 

ture; do we feel as deeply as they did, that civilization is not 
Christianity, refinement is not religion, culture is not the gos- 
pel ? The powers of the world have become more various in 
their ministry to our happiness, but do we feel as they did, 
that the powers of the world may make us worldly, and so 
carry a bane to the soul, while they give pleasure to the body? 
This world was more barren to our fathers than to us, so much 
the more may they have looked to the beauty and glory of the 
world beyond this. Let us rejoice in our enlarged privileges, 
but abide with more than their faith, by that old gospel which 
is our life as it was their's. Let us be thankful for the legacies 
of the past, and by our own fidelitv transmit them enlarged 
and beautified to the generations to come. And here may the 
church continue to stand from age to age, and the bells from 
the tower ring out the call to the worship of God, and the 
watchmen give the alarm in peril, and point out unerringly the 
way of safety. Here may messages of consolation and peace 
be borne to the hearts of the sorrowful and troubled, and pray- 
er and song give wings to the soul for its heavenward flight, 
and the eye of the dying be strengthened to see death abolished, 
and the light of immortal glory over all the future. 




NOTES TO HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



NOTE I. 

MRS. ANN BRADSTREET. 



Since writing- the discourse, I have seen an elegant volume, published in 
Charlestown, Mass., containing not only the poems published by Mrs. Bradstreet 
during her life, but also the prose writings to which reference is made in the 
discourse, and which I then supposed existed only in manuscript. The Medita- 
tions Divine and Moral were written at the request of her son, the minister of 
the First Church in New London. 

She says in her preface, dedicated " to my dear son Simon Bradstreet." " You 
once desired me to leave something for you in writing, that you might look upon 
when you should see me no more. I could think of nothing more fit for you 
than these meditations following. Small legacies are accepted by true friends, 
much more by dutiful children. The Lord Mess you with grace here, and crown 
you with glory hereafter, that I may meet you with rejoicing at the great day of 
appearing, which is the continual prayer of your affectionate mother, 

Ann Bradstreet." 

There are occasional notes in the w r orks of Mrs. Bradstreet from the diary of 
her sou Simon, which show his excellent and deeply [ ious spirit. 



NOTE II. 

THE ROGEKENES. 

Some who heard the discourse thought that the Rogerenes were not sufficiently 
commended for what was good in them, and especially for their protest against 
the improper mingling of civil and religious affairs. It is the belief of the writer 
that there were a great many who entertained similar views with the Rogerenes 
on that subject, but who would not unite with them in their absurd mode of 
testifying against what they deemed erroneous. There can be no justification of 
their conduct in disturbing public assemblies as they did, which would not justify 
similar conduct at the present day. And such conduct would lie deemed dis- 
graceful anywhere now, and would subject one to the penalties of the law. There 
is no evidence that their testimony or their protestations had the slightest influ- 
ence in correcting any of the errors of the times in respect to the relations of 
civil and ecclesiastical authority. 



36 

NOTE III. 

REMONSTRANCE FROM THE CHURCH AT NORTH STONINGTON WITH THE CHURCH 
AT NEW LONDON. 

After the death of Mr. Adams, the church found it very difficult, to unite in the 
call of a pastor. When on a sabbath it was without the services of a minister, 
one of the deacons would officiate. Hempstead referring- to such a case in his 
diary, says, "Deacon Green carried on." It seems that during the period of the 
vacancy, an invitation was given to the Rev. Joseph Fisli of Stonington, to be- 
come their pastor. The Rev. E. W. Gilman of Stonington, has placed in my 
hands a letter from the church in Stonington to the First Church in New London, 
with reference to that invitation, which is curious and interesting, as showing the 
great change which has been going on in the relations of the churches to one 
another, in a hundred years. The letter is without the date of the year, but it 
must have been written in 1756. 



Stonington, April. 
Gentlemen : 

We the North Society in Stonington, have received your letter and the votes 
inclosed therein, which show unto us what you have done and are about to do 
further, in order to obtain theRev. Mr. Joseph Fish, (our dear pastor) to lie your 
Gospel minister, the votes and the letter were publicly read in our society meet- 
ing, and it is surprising to us that an Ecclesiastical Society of the same constitu- 
tion, inclosing a church of the same communion with ourselves, should treat us 
so in seeking to supply your vacancy by depriving us of a godly minister, which 
the Lord has giveu to us, culled and ordained according to the order of the gos- 
pel : and that you should apprehend that the thing you are seeking is not contra- 
ry to gospel order, is very strange to us, seeing you as we profess suluection to 
the will of God revealed in the scriptures, to be the only rule of your faith and 
practice. The scriptures indeed inform us that Christ Jesus, the head of the 
church his mystical body, did send forth his apostles and ministers to gather and 
edify the same by the ministry of his word and ordinances; accordingly they did 
so; we find Paul and Barnabas ordained them Elders in every church which they 
bad gathered; and Paul left Titus in Crete that he might ordain Elders in every 
church; but neither Paul the apostle of the Gentiles, on whom came the care of 
all the churches, nor any of the rest of the apostles in all the directions by them 
given to ministers or elders, concerning the whole of their christian conduct, 
have given any direction or ordinance, concerning the removing of a minister to 
another church to supply a vacancy there; nor is there such an instance in the 
Book of God that we know of; and therefore we think that your treatment of us, 
is not according to gospel order. And further we apprehend that your treatment 
is very different from what is the genuine tendency and powerful effect of the 
grace of the gospel ; and what is one great end and design of it, viz : to tiring men 
to an holy conformity to the will of God, revealed in the moral law, and this 
we have received as the rule of our duty to God and man, in all things ; and we 
beseech you brethren with us seriously to consider if this motion of yours, re- 
specting our minister be not directly against t lie law in the decalogue, Thou shalt 
in it covel any t bing that is thy neighbor's. We see nothing bu1 the greatness of 
the good you desire that pleads for an excuse in the ease before us. tint you 
know that we must not say, Let us do evil -that good may come, Rom. 3: 8. 
Again, consider if your condud toward us he not contrary to the express word of 



37 

Christ our Lord and lawgiver, recorded in Mathew 7th, 12th : Therefore all things 
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so In them, for this 
is the law and the prophets. N. B. The relation which this comprehensive com- 
mand has to Christ's command, and encouraging argument to his disciples to ask 
good things of God, and see if it lie not the will of God in Christ -lesus, that 
when we or you have been asking of God even the best of blessings, we should 
wait for the same in a way of righteousness towards man, especially our brethren. 
Had you a good minister whom you loved and esteemed, and desired that you 
and your children might be always under his ministry, (while it continued) would 
you be willing that any other should deprive you of his ministry; this is the 
truth of our case ; we beseech you to apply the rule to it, and see if there be any 
room for you to proceed any further with a conscience void of offence toward God. 

In a memoir of Mr. Fish m*Sprague 1 s "Annals of the American Pulpit," an 
extract is given from some paper of Mr Fish, in which he says, " My people 
frowned upon the motion of their New London brethren, refused to join them in 
calling a council, ami settled the matter with themselves without consulting 
their pastor, or acquainting him with their return." With these proceedings Mr. 
Fish was not altogether pleased. 



NOTE IV. 

REV. MATHER BYLES, JR. 

During the progress of the Revolution, Mr. Byles entertained views in respect 
to the war that made him very obnoxious to the people, and he left the country 
in 1770 and went to reside in Halifax. After the war he was settled as Rector at 
St. Johus, New Brunswick, where be died March 12th, 1814. 

He had no faith in popular government in the church or in the State. A sensi- 
tive man, annoyed by some of the disorders of the times, and without courage to 
contend with them, he desired a stronger government in the church, one in which 
the minister would have more power and the people less. So he renounced Con- 
gregationalism, hoping to find more quiet and more ministerial authority in 
Episcopacy. Troubled at the uprising of the people against monarchical power, 
he quitted his native country and continued to live under the king. 



NOTE V. 

K1CV. HENRY CHANNING. 

The Profession of Faith and Covenant used by Mr. Channing in admitting mem- 
bers to the church, although not decidedly orthodox, is yet in doctrinal points 
far in advance of what would be received by the modern Unitarian churches gen- 
erally. The following is that Profession of Faith and Covenant. 

PROFESSION AND COVENANT. 

In the presence of Almighty God, the searcher of hearts, and before this assem- 
bly, you profess your unfeigned belief of the Holy Scriptures as given by divine 
inspiration, your acceptance of all the doctrines contained in them, and your sub- 
mission to the whole will of God revealed in his word. 



38 

You do now acknowledge the Lord Jehovah, the one living' and true God, to be 
your God, and relying upon divine assistance, do promise to walk humbly with 
God. 

Professing repentance for all your sins, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, you 
sincerely receive him, as he is offered in the gospel, as the Teacher come from 
God— the High Priest of our profession— and the King and head of the church; 
believing that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby 
you must he saved. 

Depending on the Holy Spirit for sanetifi cation, consolation and spiritual 
strength, and receiving the word of God as the rule of your faith and practice, 
you submit to the brotherly care of this church of Christ, and to the discipline 
which he hath established in his church. 

You tin now solemnly give up yourself and all that you have unto God; 
promising that you will endeavor to wall; as becometh tin' gospel of Christ, that 
you may give no cause for others to speak evil of*it on your account; but that 
the name <>t' God may he glorified in you. Thus you profess and covenant. 



It is proper to say that while tradition tells us that there was dissatisfaction 
with Mr. Channing on account of his doctrinal views, and many circumstances 
seemed to make it apparent, yet no communication appears to have been made to 
him by the church or society, with respect to any such disagreement. There is 
no hint of anything of the kind in any letter That passed between Mr. Channing 
and the people. The following is tin- result of council at his dismission. 

"Tin' Council, though deeply affected that they arc under the necessity of de- 
ciding in a case so momentous, and at the same lime mi afflictive, have come to 
the following result : 

That if the leading members of this church and society had paid greater and 
more seasonable attention to the early dissatisfaction of their pastor, respecting 
his support, and if mutual and friendly conference had taken place between him 
and them on the subject, there is reason to believe that a happy union might still 
have subsisted, and his usefulness and comfort, and the religious and temporal 
interest of the cougn station been promoted. 

On this ground the Council would gladly act the part of a mediator, and be in- 
strumental of the continuance of Mr. Channing in his pastoral relation, but from 
the progress of the measures, and the present state of the case, they are unanim- 
ously of opinion that it is expedient that the relation should be dissolved. They 
therefore declare, that agreeablj to the request of .Mr. Channing, ami the votes 
of the church and society, his relation as their pastor, is dissolved. 

Tiny unanimously and affectionately concur in recommending him as a minister 
in regular standing in the Church of Christ, and pray thai he may be eminently 
Useful and happy. 

They humbly and tenderly commend this church and society to the ureal Shep- 
herd, praying thai they may lie subjects of his special care, and of all temporal 
and spiritual blessings, and especially that they may be furnished with a pastor 
who shall come io them in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. 

Voted as the resull of < Jouncil. 

I.i:\ i li vkt, Moderator. 

Attc-t, 

William Patten, Assistant Scribe. 



FESTIVAL ENTERTAINMENT. 



When the services of the afternoon had closed, the church 
and congregation, with invited guests, repaired to Military 
Hall, where a bountiful collation had been provided by the 
ladies. Many former members of the church who had come 
to participate with us in the services were there, together with 
the ministers of the New London County Association, and 
others who had been speciallv invited to be present. 

An hour was spent in partaking refreshments, in renewing 
old acquaintances, and in delightful social converse. 

It was found that the ladies had made such large provision 
for the occasion, that the children of the church and congrega- 
tion could have a festival, and an invitation was given to them 
to meet in Military Hall for that purpose, on the next day, 
which they did to their gratification ; and still a liberal portion 
of the collation remained to be sent to the homes of the poor. 



EVENING EXERCISES. 



After the collation, the congregation were called together 
in the church at seven o'clock in the evening. The exercises 
were opened with singing, followed by prayer by the Rev. Mr. 
Willard of Colchester; when the audience had the pleasure of 
listening to the following excellent and eloquent addresses. 

Address of O. E. Daggett, D. D. 

It is pleasant to learn that according to the notice just given 
by the pastor,* the children of this congregation are to have a 
part in the proceedings of this anniversary. They should have 
their own associations with an occasion which they will like 
to remember from later stages of their lives, when they will 
be better able to appreciate its propriety and significance. 
" Instead of the fathers," are "the children." Indeed, what are 
we all but children looking up to those who go before us, and 
in turn looked up to no less by those who come after us. 

I observe also with pleasure that the choir fall in with the 
proprieties of the occasion bv selecting some of what we call 
"the good old tunes," some of them minor melodies and others 
lively movements, which, if not as old as this church, were 
favorites with our fathers through several generations. I re- 
member being unexpectedly touched at a concert by the pathos 
of a stanza from one of Watts' versions of the Psalms, sung 



*The notice of a collation the next day for the children. 



42 

in a plaintive air, of I know not how old a date, but old 
enough to have come into and gone out of "fashion," long ago. 
It seemed to me a solemn plaint fitly going up not from our 
fathers only but from all the successive generations of the race, 
ourselves among them, in appeal to God, their God and ours, 
in view of the transientness of men as contrasted with his own 
eternity. 

" Spare us, O Lord, aloud we pray, 

Nor let our sun go down at noon : 
Thy years are one eternal clay, 

And must thy children die so soon!" 

Such musings are stirred again by the recitals and services 
of this day. Anniversaries of this kind seem to affect all 
classes of persons with a tender awe. For one, I feel myselt 
under a kind of spell from the contemplation of the past in 
the personal and local details here spread out before us from 
these two hundred years. It gives an oppressive sense, which 
yet is not altogether displeasing, of the mystery of time. I 
look up with inquisitive reverence to these ancient portraits 
of able and godly men who here served their generation, and 
fair and devout " women which labored with them in the gos- 
pel," so many years ago ! In their day they came and stayed 
and went, and now are only shadows here — as we all shall be 
in our turn, even we who now seem to ourselves so real, and 
yet only make our appearance in the long succession, to be 
now and then more or less thought of, inquired into and imag- 
ined by later generations. 

We cannot but be impressed with the sameness in human 
life and character in the past and the present. Looking over 
certain old memoranda of a family history, I saw it mentioned 
that on a certain day one of the sons was suddenly killed by 
the falling of a tree, and I thought as vividly as if it were yes- 
terday how the disaster went crashing through the hearts of 
parents, children and friends— all now long since still and 
crumbled away. And so the pains and griefs and fears, as on 
the other hand the hopes and joys of mankind, whether extra- 
ordinary or common, are ever recurring, and ever lading into 
the past. Births and deaths, marriages and funerals, toils and 
amusements, sins and repentances, with all the experiences 



43 

that belong to them, are making up the old history. And 
God's ordinances have gone on with man's experiences, pray- 
ers and songs, sacraments, sermons, Lord's days, and revivals 
of religion. Even in the midst of usages now obsolete, human 
nature wrought in old times as in our times. When we were 
told to-day how the congregation used to be annually "seated" 
by a Committee, and how some persons "complained," a smile 
passed over the assembly, showing how odd the method seems 
and how natural the complaining. The lighter and graver 
features of the picture of the past are still true to human life 
and character. 

We note also the greater permanence of the interest con- 
nected with religion, as compared with that which belongs to 
other affairs. The history of this Church runs along with the 
history of the town. These two hundred years have been 
marked by exciting incidents and great changes, which in 
their day absorbed the public attention. The interest once 
felt in them, however, subsided with time. Even revolutions 
and wars come to be subjects chiefly for the antiquary and the 
historian. But the great themes and concerns of religion are 
as near to us as to our fathers. The Bible never grows obsolete. 
Christ and his gospel, with its consolations and succors, are as 
precious now as ever. Among all the families and individuals 
that have been gathered in this fold, from the first assemblage 
for worship to this concourse, eternity has not ceased to be the 
one momentous prospect, life a constant probation, sin a bur- 
den, divine forgiveness and help a necessity, the hope of heav- 
en an "anchor of the soul." " The word of the Lord endureth 
forever; and this is the word which by the gospel is preached 
unto you." 

Let this occasion move us also to think the more of the 
oneness of the people of Christ in this world and in the other. 
" The fathers, where are they?" I have spoken of those who 
have worshipped God in the successive generations of this 
church as now only shadows here, but these portraits or other 
remembrancers are not themselves. As many as have here liv- 
ed to the Lord and died to the Lord, "both theirs and ours," do 
still live unto him. They have only gone up to higher places 
in his spiritual house. Not less than while they lived here, or 
than ourselves, they are still members, and more privileged 



44 

members, of his body. Their worship and ministries go on 
within the veil, as ours without. They may do more for us 
and with vis, than our senses can report. They and we are 
united in "the communion of saints." Thus the apostle con- 
ceived of christians as a "whole family in heaven and earth." 
The primitive believers made much more account than we are 
wont to make of this wide, unearthly fellowship. It solemn- 
ized their rites, elevated their lowly stations, lightened their 
burdens, cheered their martyrdoms. If our eyes were but 
unsealed — if only by such faith as theirs — how would it glorify 
these common lives! We should feel ourselves to be " com- 
passed about with so great a cloud of witnesses," and among 
them the departed of the particular church most dear to us. 
We ought to worship and live more in the spirit of our doxol- 
ogies which ascribe glory " from all on earth and all in heav- 
en." Let us henceforth the more remember that we are indeed 
" come unto an innumerable company of angels and to the 
spirits of just men made perfect." Let us carry into our servi- 
ces the spirit of the stanza that we and our fathers have sung : 

" Let the bright hosts who wait 

The orders of their King-, 
And guard his churches when they pray. 

Join in the praise they sing." 



Address of Rev. T. L. Shipman. 

I esteem it a privilege to be permitted to recall the name, 
and linger a moment on the memory of one of your deceased 
pastors. I refer of course to Dr. McEwen. My intimate per- 
sonal acquaintance with him commenced in the summer of 
1836. I was preaching at Groton Bank. Happening to be 
standing in the front door of the house where I stopped, Dr. 
McEwen rode up from the ferry with Mr. Joel W. Newton, an 
old friend and college classmate, and as they passed, the Dr. 
spoke: "we art: going to ministers meeting at Stonington 
Point; come take up your horse and follow on." I accepted 
the invitation, and in due time found myself in a circle of 
ministers, several of whom I had heard preach on their ex- 



45 

changes with Dr. Strong of Norwich, my old pastor, but with 
none of whom had I enjoyed but the slightest personal ac- 
quaintance. The meeting held me spell bound. I was not 
long in perceiving that Dr. McEwen was the leading spirit, 
not to say the life and soul of the meeting. He preached on 
that occasion from Rom. 8: 7. The sermon must have made 
a strong impression on my mind, for at this late day I distinct- 
ly remember the plan he pursued in the illustration and en- 
forcement of his subject. Of the sermons which I heard him 
preach before the meeting at various times, I have a singularly 
fresh recollection of one at Hanover, (Sprague) upon the sym- 
pathy of Christ, from Heb. 4: 15. After speaking of human 
sympathy as sometimes feigned, often forced, always inade- 
quate to the exigencies of a great sorrow, he went on to treat 
of the sympathy of Christ, and the aspect of his countenance 
deeply affected one at least of his hearers, and often has the 
scene been recalled now that that voice is hushed in death, and 
that face is seen no more. Some of the brethren in criticising 
the sermon thought that the preacher dwelt too long on human 
sympathy, since his subject was the sympathy of Christ. Soon 
after as I was with him, referring to the criticism upon his ser- 
mon, "The brethren undertook to criticise my sermon at Han- 
over. They don't know any thing about the principles of ser- 
monizing. All that I said upon human sympathy was calcu- 
lated to heighten the effect of what followed upon the sympathy 
of Christ, by contrast." There are one or two scenes in con- 
nection with minister's meeting which I remember with special 
interest. At one time when we were about to meet with the 
Broadway church Norwich, the pastor proposed as the sermon 
did not seem to have much attraction for his people, to substi- 
tute a public discussion of some important practical topic. 
The experiment was so successful that it was repeated the next 
meeting at Greenville. The topic was " Sabbath Schools." 
After a brief dissertation from the brethren to whom the ser- 
vice had been assigned, the subject was open to remark. When 
it came to Dr. McEwen, he observed with much emotion, the 
more noticeable for he was not usually demonstrative, that he 
had to do with the tried, referring to that class sometimes 
known by that rhetorically barbarous, but terribly significant 
phrase, gospel hardened, and with great emphasis added, if there 



46 

is any person with whom I should be glad to change place, it 
is the sabbath school teacher ; he has to do, not with the hard- 
ened under abuse of the means of grace, but with minds open 
to conviction and hearts susceptible of impression. On anoth- 
er occasion at Greeneville Mr. Aitchison, who afterwards gave 
his life to China, preached. As he had been educated by the 
good people of Greeneville and was about to leave the coun- 
try, the event proved never to return, it was thought proper 
that he should take the place of the appointed preacher. He 
preached from Mat. 28: 18. "All power is given unto me in 
heaven and in earth." He alluded in the close of his discourse 
with exceeding delicacv, the more effective for that reason, to 
the circumstances in which he went forth, (he had just buried 
both his wife and his only child) but he went strengthened by 
the assurance, that He in whose name he went had all power 
given him in heaven and in earth. I had not noticed the effect 
the sermon had on Dr. McEwen, not sitting where 1 could see 
him, but when it came to his turn to remark, he could hardly 
command his feelings. He said he had been preaching the 
gospel fifty years and his work was nearly done; that he often 
felt that he had accomplished very little, and then choking 
with emotion, added that he had rarely if ever heard a sermon 
which gave him so much consolation; he rejoiced that He 
whose gospel he had so long preached, had all power given 
Him in heaven and on earth and could make his labors vet to 
accomplish some good. If Dr. McEwen's ministry had com- 
menced and closed with the part he took in measures which 
resulted in the formation of the Domestic Missionary Society 
of Connecticut, his ministry would have been one rich in 
blessings. He was ordained in 1806. At the time of his or- 
dination, "eleven large contiguous parishes stretching from 
Sterling to the seaboard on the line of Rhode Island, thence 
to the western boundary of East Lyme, thence northward to 
the southern line oi Colchester were destitute of Congrega- 
tional ministers." His eve affected his heart. One evening 
in 1815, at the old parsonage, having Rev. Mr. Holt of Ston- 
ington Point for his guest, the two brethren talked the matter 
over, and as the result of their conversation brought the sub- 
jecl a tew weeks after before the district Association, (contem- 
plating at that time only a County Missionary Society,) the 



47 

result of the deliberations in the district Association was a 
project for " a Home Missionary Society to repair the waste 
places of Connecticut and its vicinity." The project was 
brought before the General Association at their next meeting 
at Farmington. The influence of Dr. Dwight's name and ad- 
vocacy of the plan before the body, was secured, and in course 
of the ensuing year a society was organized known for many 
years as "the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut," 
now better known as " the Home Missionary Society of Con- 
necticut, auxiliary to the American Home Missionary Society." 
The result of the consultation in the old parsonage at New 
London is to be seen to-day in changing a scene of moral des- 
olation into a " field which the Lord hath blessed" in many 
parts ; " a watered garden," and all over the State decayed and 
dying churches have been resuscitated, and are now, many of 
them, among the most efficient in our commonwealth, not in- 
deed powerful in numbers but in the strength which piety 
gives any church. The members of these retired and rural 
parishes, for not a few of them are rural parishes, may be less 
known to the great world than their metropolitan brethren, 
but God knows them, and in these churches are found men 
who have power with God in prayer, and who call down bless- 
ings not only upon themselves, but upon "a world that lieth 
in wickedness." I sat in the pulpit some time since with the 
secretary of our Home Missionary Society, and listened with 
great delight to his words of counsel and cheer, and when he 
brought out, in his own way, " Brethren, this church will out- 
live you ; it is a power in the earth, and will make itself felt 
long after you are dead," I whispered, well nigh loud enough 
to be heard, Amen ! But I must close, for there are those yet 
to speak whom you are impatient to hear. I will only say in 
conclusion, that among my cherished anticipations of heaven 
is meeting again one with whom I have so often taken sweet 
counsel walking to the house of God in company, and whose 
absence from the places where I have been accustomed to meet 
him has so often brought sadness over my heart. 



48 
Rev. George E. Day, D. D., 

PROFESSOR IN THE TALE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 

Made a brief and very interesting address on the relations of 
this church to Yale College. He referred particularly to the 
services of Gov. Saltonstall, and Mr. Adams, and Dr. McEwen 
in behalf of the College. We regret that we are not able to 
give a full report of his address. 



The Rev. Dr. Gulliver, 

PRESIDENT OF KNOX COLLEGE, 

For many years a member of the New London Association of Ministers, being- 
present was invited to speak, which he very kindly did, as follows : 

An occasion like the present combines an interest in person- 
al relations and reminiscences, with a deep historic and very 
philosophical significance. The admirable discourse to which 
we listened this afternoon, was necessarily completely occupi- 
ed with personal history. The names inscribed upon these 
gallery fronts, and the portraits hung upon these walls, recall 
personal memories. The thoughts of this congregation are 
largely occupied to-night with personal associations, called up 
by the day, the place, and the memorial services. 

In these personal suggestions of the occasion I can some- 
what L share. Entering the church to-day, directly from the 
train, after several weeks of rapid journeying, the holy calm 
of the place carried me back a quarter of a century to the 
time when the late pastor of this church, with the venerable 
Dr. Nott of Franklin, and if I mistake not the beloved broth- 
er who has just addressed you, (Rev. T. L. Shipman) laid or- 
daining hands upon my head. I was reminded of the many 
noble traits of that manly man, that clear logical thinker, that 
strong christian preacher, who has just been so worthily com- 
memorated, whose genial spirit and intense hatred of pretence 
and falsehood are fresh in the memory of the brethren of the 
New London Association, who are seated upon this platform 
to-night. 1 recalled also many occasions upon which 1 was 
permitted to minister in your pulpit, and to share the hospital- 



49 

ities of your homes. I feel therefore that I can in some degree 
enter into the spirit of this occasion, as it is regarded by those 
most directly interested in it. 

But for five years past I have been a citizen of the great 
West. I have been looking back upon New England from a 
distance of twelve hundred miles. I have stood at the point 
where all the nationalities of the earth are mingling together 
in an unheard of conglomerate, the last and the permanent 
resultant of which no man can predict. I have become con- 
nected with an institution of learning, which is seeking to 
educate the future leaders of that extraordinary society. I 
have been compelled to study New England ideas, and to trace 
New England influence, and especially to analyze the elements 
of power in the New England church, as I never could have 
done here in old Connecticut. My thoughts therefore, during 
the progress of these deeply interesting exercises, have been 
largely occupied in the review of those lessons which the his- 
tory of the New England church as related to this great and 
strange nation so plainly teaches. 

You are a New England church — one of the most ancient — 
a typo-church, representing almost unchanged, the church of 
the fathers as they established it in the colonial days. This 
after all, is the thought of this occasion, in comparison with 
which all mere personal or mere historical associations are 
unimportant. The question of the occasion, which presses 
itself upon every observant student of our national organism, 
is this : 

What has the New England Church done for this nation ? 

I would suggest, for this few minutes space permits no more, 
a four-fold answer to this inquiry. 

First, then, the New England church has taught the nation 
to honor the individual man. It recognized the fact that each 
man has interests and relations which pertain to himself as an 
individual, or which lie between him and his God. With 
these it suffered no intermeddling from any outside authority, 
whether in church or state. Advice might be permissible, ex- 
ample, united with precept, might be brought to persuade the 
man, in regard to his personal affairs; but authority, never! 
Liberty, under responsibility to God, was vindicated as the 
grand prerogative of every human being. Other churches 



50 

have sought to bind the conscience, and prescribe for secret 
sins of which it compels the confession. The other colonies, 
in their civil and social ideas, recognized, only very imperfect- 
ly, the sphere of this personal liberty, and the sacredness of 
the rights it inclosed. They raised up a population of whom 
the many were to obey, the few to command. Their churches 
were constructed on the same principle. This tendency varied 
in degree, being more decided among 1 the southern colonies. 
It diminished in some cases with the lapse of time, as New 
England precedents came to be gradually adopted as the only 
resort in communities that were compelled to organize with- 
out an aristocracy which had any claims whatever to recogni- 
tion. But nowhere do we find a living fountain of liberty 
springing up with an original native force out ot the soil of 
conviction and from the warm depths of profound emotion, 
except in the New England church. In the other cases it was 
a stream turned artificially into a flume for a special necessity. 
In New England it appeared spontaneously, the natural prod- 
uct of principles and affections adopted and cherished, inde- 
pendently of all State considerations. The great glory of 
Congregationalism, the peculiarity which has made the whole 
world its debtor, is its full hearty intelligent conviction that 
each man, within the sphere of his own individual life — in all 
things which did not plainly and strongly affect the sphere of 
another man's individuality — is entitled to an absolute inde- 
pendence of his fellow man and is responsible only to God. 
While all the world beside was busy raising up subjects, New 
England was nourishing kings. Without pride or arrogance, 
each manfully recognizing the equal royalty of his neighbor, 
and all bowing reverently and submissively to God, they were 
fully conscious that they were anointed to be kings and priests 
unto God. Within the boundaries of their individual life, 
there was an inner court, which was a " king's house," into 
whose sacred precincts only he might enter to whom the mon- 
arch should extend the golden sceptre. "You Americans," 
once said a Russian nobleman to me, "all have the manner of 
a European lord. You completely deceive, by your independ- 
ent bearing, our common people." New England principles. 
New England piety. New England society, — in line, the New 
England church, is thefons et origo of the royalty of democracy — 



51 

the only royalty on our earth which will survive the last re- 
mains of barbarism, with the tinsel of its pretence and the iron 
of its despotism, — the only royalty which at last shall over- 
come and sit down with Christ in his throne, even as He also 
overcame and is set down with the Father in his throne. 

Secondly. The New England church early recognized and 
sharply defined the independence of the local church. This was 
simply the recognition of the principle just considered in a 
new application. Our fathers held that the church had a per- 
sonal sphere, as well as the individual, into which no outside 
authority had any right to come. " Let every man attend to 
his own business" was the colloquial way of putting it. To 
claim authority over a church was a usurpation and a sacrilege. 
To invite it, was a gratuitous humiliation — an act of poltroon- 
ry — a betrayal of a sacred trust from God. The local church 
is the only organization left by Christ to do His work in the 
world. It alone has the authority of his sign and seal. To 
distrust its capacity to do its work uncontrolled by any exter- 
nal power, is to distrust His wisdom. This principle is fully 
brought out in the Cambridge Platform, and has ever been 
the distinguishing glory of New England Congregationalism. 
It was not emphasized in the Saybrook Platform. In fact a 
use of ex-parte councils, which finds no justification in the 
Cambridge Platform, and which wrought much mischief in 
the Connecticut churches, united perhaps with some influx of 
Presbyterian ideas from New York, had then created a general 
distrust of this great principle in these churches. But the 
original tendency was too strong to be set aside by any written 
law. The churches of Connecticut never could be brought to 
administer the Saybrook Platform in a way to peril their inde- 
pendency. And now I am glad to see, even the form which 
seemed to call in question this great principle is being more 
and more generally abandoned. Even Presbyterianism has 
caught the spirit, as it has received the membership of these 
New England churches, and the form of their government 
by Church Courts is so modified in practice that intervention 
with the rights of a local church is likely hereafter to be the 
rare exception rather than the ride. The same may be said of 
other forms of church government. Congregationalism, in its 
spirit, may be found, in greater or less measure, in all the 



52 

American churches. Nor less has this principle affected our 
civil state. It has given us what France has not and cannot 
even conceive of — the communal system. It created our town 
governments, since for a long period the two were one. It 
taught our people that the true stability of a State, like the 
stability of the solar system, depends upon the imperium in im- 
perio, the independent individual, revolving in his own orbit, 
undisturbed in his own proper functions, and influenced from 
without only by the attractions of common interests and uni- 
versal forces. What our American churches of every name, 
and our American republic owe this simple feature of Con- 
gregationalism, cannot be over estimated or over stated. It is 
safe to say that without it our American society could not 
have existed, and republicanism would have been an improba- 
bility throughout the world. 

Thirdly. The New England churches taught the Federal 
principles — or the union for common purposes of individualities 
independent for individual purposes. The same principle lay 
at the foundation of this federation as at the basis of local and 
personal independence — the principle that an associated body 
has rights of control in matters of " common concernment," 
as truly as a local church or an individual man in matters oi 
"individual concernment." This principle is emphatically 
enunciated in the Cambridge Platform, and was vigorously 
carried out through the town and State governments for a long 
time. But when the separation took place of the church from 
the State, no substitute was devised for the civil authority in 
the management of their common interests. Voluntary or- 
ganizations sprung up for various benevolent purposes, Colle- 
ges and even Theological Schools, as well as periodicals of all 
sorts, sprang into being, representing the churches, supported 
by the funds of the churches, and in no small measure con- 
trolling the churches, and vet in most cases no consultation 
was had with the churches or with any representative body of 
the churches, either before their organization or afterwards. 
But from the beginning this was not so. The secessionists of 
the South have not departed farther from the true principles 
of the government in proclaiming State Sovereignty in nation- 
al affairs, than those who arc called in these daws "Congrega- 
tionalists" have departed from both the spirit ami the form of 



53 

Congregationalism as it was held by this church and by the 
New England churches generally, in the olden time. I have 
said it and wish to repeat it here, that Presbyterianism, as it is 
administered by the New School body at the West, is no far- 
ther from true Congregationalism on the side of local church 
independency, than Congregationalists are on the other side. 
If the Mathers should rise from their graves to-day I am sure I 
do not know which body they would join. I fancy however 
they would call us Brownists, with a very indignant emphasis 
and proceed to start true Congregationalism anew. 

Fourthly. These New England churches have illustrated 
the great principle that a perfect organism depends upon a per- 
fect individualism. Nowhere is both the State and the Church 
more thoroughly compact than they are, each of them, in New 
England, where the real principles of Congregationalism are 
a common and unquestioned law. The observer of society at 
the West notices the same fact. Wherever the rights of the 
individual and of the local community are sharply denned 
and well respected, their organic rights are guarded. The 
majority rules with an honored and absolute authority, in all 
matters which the majority should control. This is not always 
seen. Look at that magnificent display of flowers covering 
the table, filling the nooks of the pulpit, and crowning it with 
beauty. Ask any one you please who deserves the credit for 
the pleasure we are receiving from the sight. The probability 
is that he will name the persons who arranged them : and not 
without reason, for no common taste and skill were required 
for that purpose. But examine these bouquets and see how 
perfect is the individuality of their parts. Every flower and 
every petal of every flower is peculiar, and is perfect in its 
peculiarity. Every one tells you of months of care and cul- 
ture, in green-house and garden. And after all does not the 
main credit for all this beauty belong to those who developed 
each of these rare existences, one by one. This combination 
is Federalism, speaking politically, or Fellowship speaking 
ecclesiastically. New England has been the florist, Congrega- 
tionalism has been the congenial soil, the institutions of this 
fair land are the beautiful assemblage of all that is rarest and 
brightest and most fragrant, which the churches of our Pilgrim 
Fathers have produced for human happiness and the glory of 



54 

God. May you in this ancient church continue the work of 
your ancestors, 

" That your sons may be as plants grown up in their youth ; that 
your daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude 
of a palace." 



Address of W. I. Budington, D. D. 

Dr. Budington began his address by congratulating his 
friend and brother, the pastor of the church, upon the histori- 
cal researches to which he had been called by his preparations 
for the occasion that had brought them together. They were 
great, but they were eminently rewarding. He knew some- 
thing of the toil, and of the pleasure, in his study of the his- 
tory of the First Church, Charlestown, Mass., to which he 
gave himself in the very beginning of his pastoral life, and 
the influences of which had always followed him. Among the 
pleasantest of these memories, was his discovery of a little 
manuscript volume, containing meditations and aphorisms 
composed by Madame Anne Bradstreet, and written out in 
her own hand, with a dedication prefixed to her children. The 
volume belonged to Rev. Simon Bradstreet, the third pastor 
of this church, and descended to the second of the name, Rev. 
Simon Bradstreet, pastor of the First Church, Charlestown, 
as it did afterwards to the third minister of that name, the 
grandson of the first, and minister of the church in Marble- 
head. It is a most precious memorial of that eminent Puritan 
mother, and the book bears witness to the value that was set 
upon it, the last named descendant having attempted while a 
boy, to translate it into Latin. The attempt was soon aban- 
doned, however, but a better translation had been effected 
into, the hearts and lives of her children and grand-children. 

This last, continued Dr. Budington, is the best way to com- 
memorate one's ancestors; we best defend their memories 
when we perpetuate their character. Tin 1 fathers of New 
England are represented by the churches, schools, and free 
institutions they established. We prove ourselves their chil- 



55 

dren by entering into their labors, and sharing their sacrifice. 
I have been this afternoon over your ancient burial ground, 
to the tomb of Winthrop, Saltonstall, and others, who made 
illustrious the foundation and early annals of this town. 
There is no name more venerable and attractive in all our 
history, than that of John Winthrop, and the second, of Con- 
necticut, the founder of this town, was a worthy son of his 
father, and is even thought by many to have excelled that 
admirable man. I am glad to learn that the town are taking 
measures to protect and adorn that sacred resting-place of 
that first generation. It is a fitting tribute of national piety. 
But it is not all, nor even the chief part, to build the sepul- 
chres of our fathers. We have to conserve what they have 
bequeathed to us. Great as was the cost of peopling these 
colonies, of maintaining our independence, and of late in 
preserving the Union, we have a work not less vital and diffi- 
cult. The enemies of our country are no longer savage foes, 
or foreign powers, but corrupt and corrupting politicians, who 
are selling all that is dear to us, all that has cost so much, for 
a mess of potage. Each party charges the other with corrupt- 
ion, and with treason. The calmest and most enlightened 
men in our country are greatly alarmed. We have defended 
our institutions from avowed and visible foes; can we do so, 
from the greed of gain among our own people? Can we save 
our halls of legislation and our courts of justice, from being 
converted into open markets, where "justice" is sold, and 
"legislation" is offered to the highest bidder? 

We are witnessing on the other side of the Atlantic, the 
sudden and utter collapse of what had been regarded as the 
greatest military power of Europe; and to what, as its proxi- 
mate cause, is this ruin of a great empire due ! There can be 
no doubt about the answer, that it is due to corruption, to pub- 
lic stealings, to the venality of men who prefer private gain to 
their country's honor. There is no wealth that such corrup- 
tion cannot dissipate, no institutions, however good, that it 
cannot make an oppression and shame too great to be borne. 
But while some of our best and most patriotic people are ready 
to despond, and give up our republic as doomed, let me say, we 
have no reason to despair. If we fail, we shall deserve to. 
Standing where we do to-day, by the side of one of these 



a 



-m 



m 



altars, where our freedom was cradled, we have no right to 
doubt even, that by God's grace we can keep, what by God's 
grace our fathers won. The religion of the gospel as intelli- 
gently and spiritually held by our Pilgrim Fathers, is the salt 
that is able to save the land. But we must work to do it; and 
we have hard work to do; our enemies are numerous and 
subtle and persevering. God requires of us consecration to 
the same cause to which He required our fathers to give them- 
selves, their fortunes and their lives. Young men, your coun- 
try's destinies are in your hands! Give yourselves, first to 
Christ, and then to your country for Christ's sake, and you 
will become your country's saviors in a more fearful struggle 
than ever took place on the battle field, in a struggle with the 
blind selfishness of the human heart ! It is well for us to 
remember such anniversaries as this, — to retrace the stream of 
our history back to the altar of God, and to charge our soids 
with the solemn and yet encouraging lesson, that as our insti- 
tutions are what they are, by reason of the power of the chris- 
tian religion in the hearts of our fathers, so they are to be 
maintained by a Christianity as real and as practical in the 
hearts of their sons. 



The exercises were closed with prayer and benediction by 
Rev. E. W. Gilman of Stonington. 




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